Police violence is alienating youth
15 March 2020
LYDIA KAILAP
KIMBE - The common practice of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary picking up youths going about their legitimate business in the street, throwing them in the back of a police 10-seater and belting them to try and get information (torture), that they may or may not have, has to stop.
Police Minister Bryan Kramer, your officers cannot expect our youth to respect the rights of others, and not steal from them or harm them, if they themselves are victims of illegal violence from police officers.
Many of us are working very hard to get youth away from crime and violence and substance abuse; the injustice of police brutality is just sending them wild as a result of the trauma.
Professional policing should never involve unlawful conduct; especially torture - which they glibly call "interrogation". They are killing our sons just because they are not dressed in frigging suits and ties.
Please have police trained to perform their duties within the law. Their violence just leads to more violence and crime as the cycle spirals out of control.
Three young members of Youth For Change were 'abducted' by police off the street in Kimbe one afternoon recently.
They were on their way home from a week-long training workshop for youth on Family Violence and Community Healing. They were "interrogated" in the back of the vehicle and then released.
They had spent the whole week with more than 70 others finding solutions to youth crime and violence, including alcohol and drug misuse.
They had contributed their ideas to strategise genuine change. Then this.
A group of witnesses and other participants from the training workshop - all members of Youth For Change - gathered at the police station in protest.
We held a fruitful discussion with the leader of the task force involved and are hoping it will work with our youth in the future, not against them.
If the police want the community to work with them, then treat us all with respect and within the law. Violence gets nowhere. Ever.
Really sick of this shit. Torture is against every law in PNG and globally; it is not acceptable.
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